When talking to clients about social media and online community building, one generally comes across 1 of 2 types of reactions:

“Social, smocial. It’s just another fad.” (conservatives) vs. “Social, Yeah baby! This is going to rock our world!” (liberals).

Thing is, both these reactions lead to a shotgun approach. An approach that is essentially underlined by a lack of strategy.

Now, don’t confuse strategy with tactics. Social media tools such us Facebook, blogging, live streaming, video, RSS etc are just the “how to get theres”. The tactics. A strategy refers to the direction/vision of your intiatives i.e. taking a long-term approach. In essence, what this means is a handfull of strategic decisions determine all future operational (tactical) decisions.

online community

Indeed, Clem Sunter (world renowned author of “Mind of a Fox“) has identified 7 principles of business strategy which, I know is very relevant to any web strategy as well:

1. Strategy is direction. Tactics are how to get there.

2. Strategy formulated without first consulting the context will probably end up being bad strategy.

3. Strategy is as much about ruling in potential paths that fit your scope as ruling out others that don’t.

4. Good strategy can be turned into bad strategy by a future change in the context. Scenarios are a way of exploring alternative futures, which might necessitate a change in strategy.

5. Bad tactics can destroy good strategy, but no tactic can rescue bad strategy (My favourite one!).

6. Good strategy has a greater chance of being converted into good results if tactics are accompanied by a set of measurable outcomes to which people can aspire.

7. Above all, strategy is about understanding what you do and don’t control, and what is certain and uncertain about the future – and knowing when to change direction to avert unintended, and possibly tragic, consequences.

Thus, taking these principles in consideration, in approaching web initiatives more strategically, “conservatives” may realize that online community building is actually easier to use and very relevant than they might’ve imagined. On the other-hand, “liberals” can understand that social media is not the magic wand/alpha-and-omega they think it might be. It requires a lot of analysis and planning to use effectively.

At Wold Wide Creative we try very hard (and successfully, I believe) to instill a strategic approach amongst ourselves and our clients. An approach that understands that your approach/message is the key to successfull online stratgies. Technology is only the accelarator of the message, the tools… the tactics. THINK STRATEGY.